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Dash Coleman/Savannah Morning News
The Most Rev. Gregory J. Hartmayer, bishop of Savannah, led the celebration of a diocese-wide Mass in Forsyth Park on Sunday.

Dash Coleman/Savannah Morning News
Hundreds of Catholics came to Forsyth Park on Sunday amid a heat advisory to celebrate the Faith and Freedom Mass, led by the Bishop of Savannah.

Armed with umbrellas and paper fans, hundreds of Catholics gathered under the blazing sun in Forsyth Park on Sunday morning to celebrate the Faith and Freedom Mass.

Led by the Most Rev. Gregory J. Hartmayer, the bishop of Savannah, the outdoor Mass was the focal point of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah’s observance of “Fortnight for Freedom,” a period of prayer called for by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.

“This week, we will celebrate our 236th anniversary of our independence,” Hartmayer told those congregated in the park. “Since the Revolutionary War, we have fought many battles to preserve the freedom that we have enjoyed for more than two centuries. Many of our parents and grandparents immigrated to this country so that they and their families would live in a land that promised its citizens life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“We have gathered here today to celebrate our freedom and to pledge to never take it for granted; to never allow anyone to take it away from us.”

The bishop said the Catholic Church of the United States was concerned over the implications of federal regulations that will “mandate that any Catholic organizations, including Catholic organizations in South Georgia, provide access to abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization servics and contraceptives for all employees in direct contravention to our Catholic values and religious teachings.”

All parishioners in the Diocese of Savannah, which covers all of South Georgia, were invited to attend the Mass.

Derek and Laura Wise and their 1-year-old son Christopher attend St. Anne Parish in Columbus, and they drove from their home in Phenix City, Ala., just to attend the Mass in Forsyth Park. It’s a four-hour trip each way, Laura Wise said, but the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday to uphold the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate as a tax spurred them to make the drive.

“We decided it was important enough that we needed to make the trip to show our support for the diocese and anybody whose religious freedoms are being trampled — not just Catholics, but all of us,” she said.